Generation Obama Meets Bill Clinton

As Bill Clinton spoke to the standing-room-only conference of liberal student activists in a packed Washington ballroom yesterday, he peered over his reading glasses to assess the crowd. They were diverse, quite young and awfully friendly.



Although they had seemed mortal enemies during the 2008 campaign, all seemed to be forgiven between Clinton and this crowd of energized Obama devotees at the Campus Progress national conference. They had Facebooked and Twittered their way to a presidential victory, and in the process yanked it away from Hillary Clinton and put it in the hands of a generation closer to their own. But that was history now, and Clinton had a challenge for his new friends.

Over the course of his nearly hour-long speech, he told them that to live in today's "communitarian" world, they had to get busy thinking about the how.

"You should think of your generation as the 'how generation,' " the 62-year-old ex-president told them. "This is a great moment, but it isn't enough to be proud of your new president and cheer from the sidelines. You have to answer the how question."

How will they reverse climate change? How will they change the delivery system for health care and education? How will they pay for their parents' Medicare and the costs of their children's Type 2 diabetes? "You'll be worried sick about the future of your children," he warned.

The speech held most of the students' attention most of the time, but it wasn't really the stuff of Clintonian legend. Time, age and the 2008 defeat seemed to have mellowed the populist everyman from Hope. Gone was the randy former governor of Arkansas and politically brilliant, if self-destructive, two-term president.

In his place was a white haired, almost grandfatherly, figure, lecturing the students from a podium several feet above the crowd. A bright orange tie set off his expensive-looking khaki suit, where one hand rested casually in a pants pocket while the other pointed left, right and directly at his audience to emphasize one socially responsible point or another.

From the carbon footprint of Korea to housing in New Orleans's Ninth Ward, from narco-traffickers to the importance of being a public servant as a private citizen, Clinton gave the Generation Obama kids a to-do list long enough to last their entire lives.

He also gave them a look back at his own administration, heavy on the victories ("we passed the biggest increase in college aid in 50 years"), light on the defeats (his failed efforts at health care reform) and silent on the scandals that plagued his eight years in office.

But who in this room knew or cared? Many of these Democratic newbies were toddlers when Bill Clinton was elected president in 1992. They described him as a likable, charismatic relic and looked back on his administration, to the extent that they could, with a blend of nostalgia and appreciation.

They are the first generation with no memory of how bad it got for Bill Clinton and the first to see him as truly a figure from the political past, rather than the present.

"I remember the saxophone, the dog and Hillary," said Cierra Robinson, a 23-year-old student from Howard University. "There was a sense of comfort back then."

"Part of the reason we're here is because of his administration," said Melissa Morales, 21.

Desiree Ortiz, 20, said, "He's the bridge between two generations," adding, "I felt like he was speaking to me, but I guess everybody says that."

Vinayak Muralidhar, a 20-year-old student at M.I.T., compared the past president to the current one. "When I saw Obama speak, he was very inspirational, but not specific," he said. "Clinton gave us things we can do."

So where does Bill Clinton ultimately fit in with the Obama-generation Democrats?

When asked if Clinton helped pave the way for Obama to become president, Cierra Robinson said, "I think when she endorsed him, that helped out." The Clinton who was relevant in Robinson's mind, of course, was Hillary.